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Reception auties 2018/19 - thread 2

998 replies

openupmyeagereyes · 14/12/2018 08:05

Thanks to LightTripper for the thread title. This is the continuation of the thread for parents and carers of dc with autism in their reception year at school. Please join us if you can or, if you have dc due to start reception in 2019, feel free to drop by and ask us questions.

Thread 1

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livpotter · 20/02/2019 09:13

That's pretty worrying Dimples! I hope yesterday went better!

Sorry to hear that your ds is having a tough time at school sue. I'm not worried about secondary yet. Still working out whether ds should be in mainstream at all! I recently joined a local parent group, which had been interesting for discussing good secondary schools in the area for ASD. I think I'm still catastrophising about year 1!

I'm going to an annual review lecture organised by our local SENDIASS team next month. I'll pass on anything useful. Ours won't be until June.

That's brilliant about he why questions and he sleep open.

Half term is a bit of a mixed bag here. Generally ds seems to be happy but yesterday we had two head banging incidents which hasn't happened for months. We're going to the OT today so hopefully that will sort him out a bit.

LightTripper · 20/02/2019 12:51

Hope everyone is doing OK. Great stuff on the questions open!

Does anybody else's DC get very attached to stuff? DD really struggles to let anything go. Today I was trying to put the baby scales out (our neighbours just had a baby and would like to have them) and she was in tears! I do remember being very attached to random stuff when I was small, but I'm not sure if my list of special things were quite as wide-ranging as DD's!

livpotter · 20/02/2019 20:59

Ds gets very attached to thing too light but often for short(ish) periods.
He went through a phase where if he unwrapped a present or a toy he would have to repeatedly wrap and unwrap it and would get unbelievably upset if we threw out the packaging! Glad that phase seems to be over!

elliejjtiny · 20/02/2019 21:18

dimples and liv I don't think he is ready for reading yet either. It's hard to tell with ds though. His understanding is better than his speech I think as his writing is quite good when he can sit still long enough but he really struggles with reading. I'm a bit indignant that the school seem to think we aren't trying though.

danni and open we haven't had that yet thankfully. Not really sure what other children think of ds. My niece is the same age and she thinks he is naughty at the moment.

dimples76 · 20/02/2019 22:26

Ellie I'm impressed with the writing and I would feel annoyed in your shoes too. I thought that hand writing was improving here but he struggles so much - today I asked him to write his name (which he has done quite a few times) but he kept drawing a line upwards on the first letter of his name rather than downwards and was holding the pencil very strangely. I wrote the letter a few times and did hand over hand with him but it was like all memory of how to form it had gone. Still waiting for OT report from November visit to school ...

Strangely on the other hand his new thing is spelling out words - when he went to bed to night he was talking to himself m-u-m mum, d-o-g dog etc.

Hope that the OT session helped your DS today Liv.

Light my son only seems to get attached to things that I decide to get rid of. He has a toy garage that he hasn't played with in ages so I was just thinking that I should box it up and put it in the spare room (there are too many toys out). I didn't even voice this thought (maybe he saw me eyeing it up?!) but suddenly it's his favourite thing

LightTripper · 21/02/2019 10:14

They are psychic dimples Grin The spelling out is good I think isn't it? DD got quite into that recently too. Suggests his struggles may be more with the physical side of things? Hopefully it will just click at some point...

I probably did a bad thing re: DD's difficulty letting the scales go, because I explained we were giving them to our neighbours and suggested we could ask them to give them back when they've finished with them (which I have no intention of doing but I am 99% confident DD will forget all about it once it's gone). Danger is if we go over there (which we probably will at some point) and DD starts telling them they're giving it back to us afterwards ... but as long as it's out of sight I'm hoping we'll be OK!

If not I'll just explain. They know she's autistic as they have close friends with an autistic adult daughter who we were chatting to about it a couple of Christmasses ago, so I think they'll understand.

Today DD went to a music group where she didn't know anybody for the morning. Her best friend was supposed to be going too, which I thought would make it OK. Then her Mum messaged this morning and said they were going out for the day instead and my stomach just sank. I was convinced DD wouldn't want to go any more but actually gave her the option and although she was upset at first (and wanted me to check who else was going on my phone ... she thinks my phone is the source of all information in the universe Grin) she decided she would go after all. I think the lure of mini guitars outweighed the anxiety of not knowing anybody. Apparently she was tearful when she got there but settled in OK and one of the music teachers is a SN teacher so hopefully she'll have a good morning ...

Are you all on half term too?

dimples76 · 21/02/2019 18:25

That sounds like a good idea re the scales Light.

Yes, we're on half term. I was working this morning but we've had a lovely afternoon at a local farm which has 'Forest Adventure' - can't believe that we enjoyed a whole afternoon outdoors in the sunshine in February.

Tomorrow might be more challenging though as I am taking DS and my sister's (recently diagnosed ASD) twins to a museum. My boy loves it there but I don't know about my niece and nephew .....

Original poster
openupmyeagereyes · 22/02/2019 10:03

Good luck dimples. Brave woman Grin

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dimples76 · 22/02/2019 21:39

Thanks Open! It was great - that said I'm currently lying on the sofa trying to summon up the energy to go to bed!

Original poster
openupmyeagereyes · 25/02/2019 14:22

How was everyone’s half term break?

Things were good here and we had some nice days out - all tried and tested places which he knows well. He slept until 5 most days which was also a welcome relief. There was a bit of grumbling about not wanting to go back to school today but he actually went in fine, thank goodness. Fingers crossed he’s had a good day!

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Original poster
openupmyeagereyes · 25/02/2019 18:44

Ds came home today with a birthday party invitation which is lovely. It has times for drop off and collection. Needless to say he won’t be going! Grin

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livpotter · 25/02/2019 20:30

Amazing work dimples have you fully recovered?

Glad you had a good half term open. Lovely that your ds got invited to the party!

Half term was ok here. We basically stuck to doing one thing a day and then picked up dd from nursery in the afternoon. We've had a few more head banging incidents but nothing like how he used to do it, which was very scary to watch.

Apparently ds had a great day at school today, including actually joining in with some of the class activities and keeping his shoes on for the whole day (completely unheard of!). Long may it last!

Original poster
openupmyeagereyes · 25/02/2019 20:42

liv hurrah for shoes! I hope the headbanging stops soon, it must be scary.

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dimples76 · 25/02/2019 22:36

Bit of a wobbly return to school - he needed a fair bit of encouragement to get out of the house.

Surprisingly DS's verdict on the theatre group/puppet show at school was that it was great. His TA said he did get scared a couple of times but he settled again quickly. He was a bit of a nightmare on the way home though so I think there was a lot of masking at school.

Hopefully they'll all settle back into their routines soon ...

Original poster
openupmyeagereyes · 26/02/2019 08:36

dimples sorry ds was difficult after the theatre day. Great that he coped with it ok though.

We have a stand off. Ds still not ready for school. He’s refusing today. Sigh.

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dimples76 · 26/02/2019 13:03

Oh dear Open - hope that the stand off didn't last long

Original poster
openupmyeagereyes · 26/02/2019 13:13

I’ve just dropped him off at school so a good 5 hours but I’m relieved he’s gone in. Good grief!

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LightTripper · 26/02/2019 22:27

Oh open that sounds hard. I hope you had a treat this evening to recover a bit!

DD has definitely been anxious about drop off again but better than after Christmas and has been mainly managing it (I can see she is tearing up but we do our little rituals and she's kind of OK) so I'm hoping she'll settle quicker this half term. She seemed keen to go back (well, in a way - she sounded excited about school but also said she'd like to have 10 weekends in a row! But then I would be sad if she seemed to prefer school to weekends so all good really!)

Hope your DS settles soon open and everyone else is settling back in OK.

livpotter · 27/02/2019 06:31

Glad your ds did well at the puppet show dimples.

Well done for getting him in yesterday open. I hope you have an easier day today!

Hope your dd is ok today light.

Not much happening here, just quite relieved to have both kids back in school/nursery. Half term was fun but hard work.

Dd was assessed by SALT again yesterday to see what they are going to do with her so will be interesting to see what they say. I'm kind of hoping she's made enough improvement to be discharged from the service.

LightTripper · 27/02/2019 09:58

Fingers crossed for DD liv. My DD kept on with SLT longer than I expected because they were working on sequencing, turn taking, that kind of stuff but would be great if she is "signed off" - it's nice to be as close to just having family life as possible. Is she starting school this September or not until 2020? I am struggling to get my head around DS starting pre-school in less than a year. Time goes so fast (and I'm working crazy hours at the moment which doesn't help with the epic speed and the Mum-guilt).

Good drop off this morning. Still a bit wobbly but she actually walked away by herself to find a friend to play with which is the first time she's done that this half term and only day 3, so that's pretty encouraging I think! And apparently she joined in with some of the dance class yesterday Shock.

elliejjtiny · 27/02/2019 11:41

Well done on the museum trip dimples and the dancing liv Hope today was better open. Half term for us was mainly about survival. DS doesn't do change very well. I pre-ordered a book on amazon that was coming out on the thursday so I would have something to look forward to. DS has decided that he likes one thing about school now, the pork and noodle stir fry thing that they sometimes have for dinner, which he likes to call scrambled snake, like in the gruffalo Smile

Couple of exciting things happening this week with my 2 older ones. 12 year old ds1 who is autistic but much higher functioning than my 4 year old came home from school and proudly told me he had been "small talking" with some other boys at school. So proud of him. He is very academic and is doing his grade 3 piano but he really struggles with chatting, hanging about and doing whatever 12 year old boys normally do. 10 year old Ds2 who has ehlers danlos syndrome has got his county final boccia (like boules) game on friday. It's an all special needs tournament and he and the other 2 team members from his school have already got through the first round before Christmas. It's the only time most of these children will get to represent their school in a sporting event and ds2 is so excited.

livpotter · 27/02/2019 14:51

She'll be going in 2020 light. We've just moved her to the pre school of ds's school, which is brilliant and I have no idea why we didn't move her earlier! Things seem to move so fast with small children.

I'm not sure when we'll get feedback from SALT but hopefully soon.

Glad that your dd was ok today Light and great she joined in with the dance.

It sounds like all your ds's are doing brilliantly Ellie!

dimples76 · 27/02/2019 18:29

How was drop off today Open?

Ellie I love your small talk story - how fantastic that your son was able to share his success with you. Good luck to your other boy on Friday.

DS has not enjoyed school very much this week - everything seems wrong: the playground is too noisy, he doesn't like his friends any more, school dinners are 'yucky' However, he has just had a friend around to play and they spent the entire time giggling - music to my ears.

LightTripper · 28/02/2019 10:29

Ahhh, that's lovely!!

livpotter · 28/02/2019 16:31

That's lovely dimples, I hope your ds had a better school day today.

I just went to the park with ds and as usual we ran everywhere for about an hour. But, he told me where he was going, held all the gates for me and told me 'stop the car' every time we got to the road (inside the park so not with actual cars) and waited for me to tell him to go. Who replaced my ds with this other child?!